KYC norms meant to safeguard banks from money laundering: RBI

The Reserve Bank of India's regulatory stance on 'Know Your Customer' (KYC) norms aims to safeguard banks from money laundering activities and enable them understand risks posed to customers, products and services, its Deputy Governor said here today.
"At the same time, RBI is fully conscious that the KYC framework will have to be relevant to the perceived risk and not intrusive in nature, nor too strict, resulting in denial of banking services to the general public," RBI Deputy Governor R Gandhi said at an event here today.
Talking on ways to combat financing of terror, he said banks have to develop suitable mechanisms for enhanced monitoring of accounts suspected to have terrorist links and make suitable reports to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) on a priority basis to collect, collate and analyse financial information.